Mueller disputes report that Trump directed lawyer to lie

Mary Clare Jalonick and Eric Tucker, Associated Press

Friday

Jan 18, 2019 at 3:06 PMJan 18, 2019 at 8:37 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of BuzzFeed News' report that said President Donald Trump's attorney told Mueller that the president directed him to lie to Congress.

BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told Mueller that Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project. The report said Mueller's investigators learned about Trump's directive "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents."

The report said Cohen then acknowledged Trump's instructions when he was interviewed by the Mueller team.

The statement by Mueller's office on Friday night doesn't cite any specific errors, but the special counsel's spokesman, Peter Carr, said, "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate."

Immediately after the statement was issued, Trump retweeted a post that said: "Sadly so many will never get the memo that it was fake!"

Buzzfeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said: "We stand by our reporting, and we are working to determine what exactly the Special Counsel is disputing. Stay tuned."

The news shocked Democrats, but Republicans were more skeptical of the report.

"This is deeply troubling," tweeted Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles. "Congress should use its oversight authority to get to the bottom of whatever the hell is going on. No one is above the law, including the president of the United States."

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, was a bit more measured.

"Americans deserve to know the truth, and that is why it is imperative Special Counsel (Robert) Mueller’s investigation be allowed to continue to follow the facts and get to the bottom of any potential political, personal, and financial ties between Trump and Russia — as well as any attempts by the president to obstruct any federal investigation,” she said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said if the article is true, then what's described in it is a "crime."

"No one is above the law, not even the president," he said. "We must protect the independent investigation from political interference and allow law enforcement to do their jobs. That includes opposing William Barr’s nomination as attorney general. No one who has already tried to influence this investigation can be impartial, and the American people deserve the truth.”

Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Zanesville, declined to comment through a spokeswoman, saying that the report was unsubstantiated.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, was more blunt.

“Really, BuzzFeed? Are there any National Enquirer stories you want my reaction to as well? Why am I paying for a Dispatch subscription if you are going to rely on BuzzFeed for the hard journalism?" he said.

"As in the past, I am not going to comment on anonymous sources and partial information. I support the Mueller investigation and look forward to reviewing the full report when it is completed.”

Emily Benavides, a spokeswoman for Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said, "Rob has consistently supported the Mueller investigation continuing without political interference and looks forward to the release of the report soon."

Democrats had earlier vowed to investigate whether the report was true, calling that possibility a "concern of the greatest magnitude." House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., both said they would investigate the matter.

Any evidence that Trump directed a witness to lie to investigators would place him in the greatest political and legal jeopardy yet and confront him with allegations of the sort that led to the departure of one president and the impeachment of another.

The Associated Press had not independently confirmed the report.

Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said in a statement Friday that "any suggestion — from any source — that the President counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false." White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the allegation "absolutely ridiculous."

On Twitter Friday morning, Trump charged that Cohen was "Lying to reduce his jail time!"

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project on Trump's behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign. The charge was brought by Mueller and was the result of Cohen's cooperation with that probe.

He admitted that he lied when he told lawmakers he had never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and when he said that he'd decided by the end of January 2016 that the "proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further."

He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss' alleged sexual affairs, telling a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Trump's "dirty deeds" out of "blind loyalty."

Giuliani noted that Cohen had pleaded guilty to lying and quoted federal prosecutors in New York who chastised him for a "pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time." Mueller's team, however, has called him a credible witness.

"Today's claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohen's malice and desperation," Giuliani said.

Lanny Davis, a Cohen adviser, declined to comment.

Cohen is scheduled to testify publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7. The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said Friday that he expects Cohen to talk to that panel in February.

Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has discouraged any talk of impeachment in the early days of her new majority, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report is confirmed, Trump's actions could rise to that level.

"If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached," tweeted Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence panel.

Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, also a Judiciary committee member, tweeted that if Trump directed Cohen to lie, "that is obstruction of justice. Period. Full stop."

A Senate Democrat, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, tweeted that "we need to know this ASAP" if Mueller does have multiple sources confirming that Trump directed Cohen to lie.

"Mueller shouldn't end his inquiry, but it's about time for him to show Congress his cards before it's too late for us to act," Murphy tweeted.

Additonal reporting by Jessica Wehrman, The Columbus Dispatch

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller in Washington and Jonathan Lemire and Jim Mustian in New York contributed to this report.

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